
(j^O/vIPLI^EffrS OF < ^ 

'he §tPa6l Roller/Aill (Jo 

LOngsland Smith /^aiJagek 
§T P/UjL )y Mlh/Nf. 



\ V) u 



































GENERAL INDEX. 


Introductory..... 

Chapter I, Conflicting Views on Cookery. 

Chapter II, The Old School and the New. 

Chapter III, First Lessons at Cooking School. 

Chapter IV, The Mysteries of Brejid Making Unfolded.. 

Chapter V, Buried Bakeries. 

Chapter VI, “ Lucy’s Whim ”. 

Chapter VII, A Letter from Florida. 

Chapter VIII, “ Purely Pastry ”. 

Chapter IX, A Return to Dough... 

Chapter X, Breakfast Bites. 

Chapter XI, Reflection. 


PAGE. 
.... 2 

.... 3 
.... 6 
.... 8 
.... 13- 
.... 19 
.... 23 
.... 28 


36 

40 

44 


INDEX OF RECIPES. 


Note. —For Illustrations of Bread. Rolls etc., see Third Pasre of Cover. 


P/GE. 


Angels’ Food, (with Cut). 38 

Cream Crackers. 30 

Doughnuts. 30 

Delicate Cake. 45 

English Muffins, (with Cut). 37 

Federal Bread. 30 

Flannel Cake. 30 

French Rolls, (with Cut). 26 

Home Made Bread, (with Cut). 13 

imperial Rolls, (with Cut). 13 

Loaf Cake. 37 

Maryland Biscuit, (with Cut). 37 


Printed by GEO. C. POUND, 

ST PAUL, MINN. 


PAGE. 

Muffins (Baking Powder). 30 

Notions. 30 

O. B. Muffins. 36 

O. B. Waffles, (with Cut). 40 

Pastry, (with Cut)..32-35 

Pine Apple Fritters.. 41 

Queen Fritters. 42 

Sponge Cake. 38 

Testing Flour. 9 

Vienna Bread, (with Cut). 24 

Yeast.10 and 25 












































THE 


ORANGE BLOSSOM 

COOK BOOK, 


AN EXPLANATION OF 


The Art of Breadmaking, 


BY 

/ 

ELLEN GRAY.” 


PUBLISHED BY 


THE ST. TkA^TTT, ROLLER MILL GO., 

KINGSZjAND SMITH, - MASHiKH. 


SAINT PAUL, MINN. 


} itf J § "y&i 

Entered according to Act of Congress by Kingsland Smith in the year 1885, 
in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, P. C. 


VOL. I 












In issuing this first edition of the Orange Blossom Cook Book, we wish in 
a few words to explain our object. 

We believe that the making of bread in its various forms, is one of the most 
important branches of cookery and one that is perhaps the least understood. 

By a knowledge of the various appetizing forms in which flour can be served 
as bread, the housekeeper can supply her table from time to time with a 
variety of breads, that will prove a new source of pleasure to her family. For 
instance, many people trying the French rolls, made according to the descrip¬ 
tion in the Orange Blossom Cook Book, for the first time, have declared that 
they never supposed bread could be so delicious. 

In looking over the various popular cook books, we have been surprised to 
notice the meagreness of instructions on bread making. Some general recipes 
indeed are usually found, but all the little details* necessary for a clear under¬ 
standing of the subject, are entirely omitted. We, therefore, have taken it 
upon ourselves to supply this deficiency, and have endeavored in the Orange 
Blossom Cook Book, to explain every point about bread making in such a 
clear manner, that anyone, even without any previous knowledge of the 
subject, can, by careful attention to the instructions, and aided by a little 
practice, become a successful bread maker. 

It has taken no little time, labor and expense to prepare the Orange Bios 
som Cook Book, and we trust it may assist many a young housekeeper to 
better bread products. We secured the services of the best bread maker 
we could find for preparing the recipes, and in order to make the matter 
more interesting, we have woven them into a story which will be completed 
in future editions, should this one meet with as favorable a reception as we 
hope. We would call attention to the illustrations on the third page of the 
cover. We have had these specially prepared to give the reader a clear idea 
of the size and form of some of the kinds of bread described. 

We think our readers will find the chapter on “ Buried Bakeries ” a specially 
interesting one. The cuts that illustrate it were kindly furnished by our 
friend Mr. C. M. Palmer, the enterprising proprietor of the Northwestern 
Miller of Minneapolis, Minn.—the leading milling journal of the world. 

We are always pleased to hear from consumers of our flour, and any lady 
who may have any question or suggestion to offer concerning the topics treated 
in the Orange Blossom Cook Book wall receive careful attention by addressing 
the undersigned. Very respectfully, 

Kingsland Smith, Mgr. 

St. Paul, Minn., July, 1885. 






CHAPTEB I. 


CONFLICTING VIEWS ON COOKERY. 


“ I begin to doubt the wisdom of Solomon somewhat,” exclaimed 
Grandmother Perkins, as she removed the spectacles from her nose, 
and laid down the newspaper she had been reading. 

Her granddaughter Sophie who was busily engaged in re-making 
some article of wearing apparel that had been cut and made up 
in the conventional style so painfully familiar to women who are 
compelled to patronize fashionable dressmakers, stopped short in 
her work, and eagerly inquired, “Why so grandma?” 

“Because” replied the old lady, with an expression of the utmost 
disgust, “here’s an account nearly a column long that Pve just read, 
of a new school somewhere out west, in which girls are to be taught 
to make bread and cook meat, and do all kinds of housework. 
Solomon says ‘there is nothing new under the sun;’ but I’d like to 
know if that isn’t something new? Who ever heard of such a school 
before? In my young days mothers showed their daughters how 
to do all kinds of housework, and long before I was married, I was 
as good a housekeeper as mother, even though I do say it myself. 
Bless me, I remember as distinctly as if it was yesterday, how your 
Grandfather Perkins praised the bread he ate at supper the first 
time he ever visited our house. But well he might, for it was beau¬ 
tifully light and spongy and almost as white as the driven snow— 
and I never went to cooking school a day either. People may write 
and talk as much as they please about Schools of Domestic Economy, 
or whatever fanciful names they choose to give them, but I can’t see 
much economy in girls going to such places to learn to cook and do 
housework, when they can learn to do such things better at home.” 

“ But, grandma,” said Sophie, “ you don’t object to such schools 
as that of the Agricultural College at Ames, Iowa, under the super¬ 
vision of Mrs. Ewing, where theoretic study and practical drill are 








4 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


combined in every branch of housework, and where thorough in¬ 
struction is given in cookery and all the household arts?” 

“My dear child,” replied her grandmother in evident astonish¬ 
ment at Sophie’s question, “it looks tome like a great waste of time 
and money for a young woman to go to school anywhere, to be 
taught what she ought to learn at home. There are so many im¬ 
portant studies to take at school that no girl can afford to go there 
to learn to cook or do housework.” 

“ Don’t you think it quite as important, grandma,” persisted 
Sophie “ to know how to cook and keep house as it is to do almost 
anything else? Is there anything more important to learn than the 
art of making home pleasant and attractive? Does any subject 
concern us more than the proper preparation of food ? If I had 
spent half the time in learning to cook that I have in learning to 
paint, or had given as much attention to my diet as to my Latin and 
Greek and Music I am very sure I wouldn’t be under the care of a 
physician to-day. I am satisfied the food, and more especially the 
bread, I have been compelled to eat for the last few years has done 
much towards injuring my health.” 

“Sophie, where did you pick up your strange notions?” asked 
the old lady in amazement at hearing her granddaughter express 
such heterodox views. “ I’m sure you always had good bread at 
home, and I generally find very good bread wherever I visit. It 
takes a great deal of hard work to make bread, and most house¬ 
keepers are too busy to spend half their time in making bread. 
Indeed most of them find their families eat enough of such bread 
as they give them; and I can’t see the sense of their working them¬ 
selves to death trying to make it better. I know all about bread 
making—for I could make as good bread as my mother when I was 
sixteen—and made it pretty regularly every week for about fifty 
years, and I’m quite sure that many of our neighbors are as good 
bread makers as I am.” 

“I don’t mean to say, grandma,” quietly resumed Sophie, “ that 
you ever made any poor bread, but I don’t see why there shouldn’t 
be as much progress in bread making as in anything else. And if 
there are any new or improved ways of making it we ought to take 
advantage of them. You remember Pansy wrote in one of the papers 
the other summer, that a number of ladies who went to cooking 
school at Chautauqua, under the impression they knew all about 
making bread, confessed after seeing the teacher make some, that 





CONFLICTING VIEWS ON COOKERY. 


D 


they learned more in an hour about good bread and how to make it, 
than they had learned in all their lives before. And Minnie Hawk 
told me the other day that the most delicious bread and rolls she 
had ever eaten, was some she got while attending a lesson at the 
cooking school when she was visiting in St. Paul last winter.” 

“ If you and Minnie Hawk knew the amount of labor required to 
make a batch of bread you wouldn’t be so particular perhaps, but 
would be satisfied to eat the same kind of bread other people eat 
and think good enough,” was Mrs. Perkins’ response to what she 
considered almost an impertinence on the part of her granddaughter 

“But, grandma,” persisted Sophie quietly, “in one of her lec¬ 
tures Mrs. Ewing says—‘that when a person knows just how, it 
requires very little labor and is scarcely any trouble to make and bake 
a batch of bread of the very best quality.’ And Minnie told me that 
when she gave the lesson on bread making in St. Paul she dissolved a 
cake of Fleischmann’s Compressed Yeast in a quart of wetting, and 
t :adually stirred in a sufficient quantity of Orange Blossom flour to 
make the dough the proper consistency, then after molding it a few 
minutes she put it to rise, and in less than five hours from the time of 
commencing operations the bread was baked and ready for the table. 
By the old method, you know it takes all night and nearly all next 
lay with two or three hours of hard work to do a baking, I think it 
would be worth while for any woman to spend a whole year at a 
School of Domestic Economy if she learned to do nothing but make 
good bread, according to the method taught at Ames by Mrs, Ewing. 
It seems to me the saving of time and labor in making bread alone 
would pay well, if no instruction were given in anything else.” 

The conversation between Sophie and her grandmother was 
interrupted by the arrival of some of Sophie’s friends, and although 
tlie old lady was in no very amiable mood when her granddaughter 
went to meet the visitors, she wiped her spectacles, replaced them 
on her nose, and re-read every word of the article about the School 
of Domestic Economy. 






6 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COoK BOOK. 


CHAPTEE II. 

THE OLD SCHOOL AND THE NEW. 

Prudence Perkins, or Grandmother Perkins as she was generally 
called by the neighbors, was one of those New England women 
whose houses are always neat and tidy, but seldom home-like or cosy, 
and who give so little attention to the preparation of the food served 
at their tables, that even a limited amount of it taken regularly for 
a short period, gives one accustomed to wholesome, well cooked fare, 
frequent attacks of dyspepsia, if not a chronic feeling of discomfort. 

Sophie Southgate’s parents had both died when she was a child, 
and Sophie had been reared by her grandmother until old enough 
to be sent to a young ladies’ seminary—one of those typical institu¬ 
tions whose course of study and course of diet combined, speedily 
ruin the constitution of the average young woman; and here she 
remained until her health was seriously impared, and her educa¬ 
tion “ finished.” 

While her time was engrossed with school studies Sophie had 
given no thought to the subject of practical hygiene, and like a 
large proportion of the graduates of our colleges and seminaries, 
she had no idea, when she graduated, that the remotest connection 
or sympathy exists between the stomach and other faculties of the 
human organism; or that the food one eats has the least to do with 
one’s general health, or special diseases. But shortly after return¬ 
ing home her attention had, by a paragraph in a newspaper, been 
called to the fact that her diet might have much to do with her 
physical ailments, and she then began to notice that the inferior 
bread she was obliged to eat at nearly every table where she hap¬ 
pened to be a guest, affected her in an especially injurious manner. 
She consequently began to watch, with a good deal of interest, the 
drift of advanced thought on the food question; and several months 
before the family physician had prescribed a visit to the south as 
the only panacea for her, Sophie had reached the conclusion that a 
change of diet would do more to restore her wasted vitality than 
a change of climate. But when she ventured to express such an 
opinion to him he, having never thought in that direction, merely 
hooted at the idea. Sophie’s belief however was not in the least 
shaken, and though she never mentioned the matter again to him, 





THE OLD SCHOOL AND THE NEW. 


7 


she steadily pursued her investigations and became more and more 
convinced of the correctness of her belief, until conviction was 
finally driven home by reading in a sermon of one of America’s 
greatest preachers that “ bread touches every single quality that goes 
to make up life and power and success; and supplies the strength 
and substance to reproduce the waste materials of every element 
in the human body.” 

Having heard a good deal about the superior quality of roller 
mill flour and the marked excellence of compressed yeast in bread 
making, Sophie longed to see them practically tested, but she had 
breathed the atmosphere of her grandmother’s home so many 
years, and her system had become so saturated with it, that it was 
almost impossible for her to realize that so very marked a difference 
could exist in the quality of bread made in her grandmother’s 
kitchen, from that made elsewhere, although made of another brand 
of flour and another kind of yeast by a somewhat different process. 
But as Mrs. Perkins was so set in her ways that she could not be 
induced to use new process flour or compressed yeast, or to have 
bread made in any other way than that to which she had been 
accustomed all her life, Sophie felt a delicacy in interfering with the 
domestic arrangements in regard to bread making; and as com¬ 
pressed yeast was not obtainable at the village grocery, she had made 
no very strenuous effort to improve the quality of her grandmother’s 
bread. She resolved however to acquaint herself very thoroughly 
with the most improved method of making bread, and looked for¬ 
ward eagerly to the time when she could have an opportunity of 
doing so, and of satisfying herself of the effect upon her health, of 
bread of the choicest quality, without in any way coming in conflict 
with her grandmother’s prejudices. Sophie had so much respect 
for the old lady’s feelings, and considered it so hopeless a task to 
attempt to convince her of the importance of cookery, that she sel¬ 
dom refered to the subject in her presence; but when her grand¬ 
mother commenced the conversation given in the first chapter, in 
such a pugnacious style, she felt as if she were called upon for an 
expression of her sentiments; and taking up the cudgels in behalf 
of better bread, she handled them so vigorously, and with such 
marked effect that Grandmother Perkins was driven into a corner 
and compelled to put on her thinking cap. Before she emerged 
therefrom and removed her cap—we of course mean metaphorically 
--^Sophie was on her -way to the sunny South. 




8 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


CHAPTEB III. 

FIRST LESSONS AT COOKING SCHOOL. 


The new cooking school had a sweet, clean odor of pine, undis¬ 
turbed by that of paint or plaster. It was a cosy place, well lighted 
and ventilated, with windows upon all sides, that could be raised or 
lowered at will with the slightest effort. A rotund, jolly looking 
tea kettle hummed and murmered, upon a range of the most ap¬ 
proved pattern, and stew pans and basins and dish pans hung, or 
stood, in their appropriate place. The tables, of which there were 
several in the room, had smoothly polished, unpainted tops, while 
the chairs were light, but strong and comfortable, and corresponded 
admirably with the balance of the furniture. Every thing w*as new 
and clean, and fresh and wholesome. And Miss Lucy Knight with 
glowing cheeks, and sparkling eyes, and hair that glimmered like 
gold in the mellow sunshine, sat in front of the polished range, 
beside one of the tables, clad in an indefinite gingham with a soft 
frill of lace at her throat, and a white apron clinging closely to her 
plump figure. Opposite the entrance door and on a small cabinet 
that contained a writing desk and the school library, hung a neatly 
framed diploma one which was plainly visible:- 


I 




jssssPSss 


r LUCY KNIGHT, % 

i % 

I *• H - s - ! 

“How beautiful she is!” was Sophie Southgate’s thought, as 
Miss Knight with a radiant smile welcomed her as the first pupil; 
but before she had time to syllable her thoughts in complimentary 
phrases a troop of girls came crowding hurriedly into the room, and 
the fragrance of a bunch of orange blossoms which one of them 
laid upon the teacher’s table, disturbed the current of her soliloquy 
and carried her back to her grandmother’s home among the bleak 
New England hills. ' 

“Kat-tap-tap!” said the wooden spoon as it fell upon the polished 
surface of the white oak table producing an instantaneous silence 
among the pupils, and the teacher in soft, distinct tones began the 
opening lesson of the new cooking school. 




CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD FLOUR. 


9 


“Since bread, is tlie staff of life” she said, “and the most impor¬ 
tant article of diet, it is eminently proper that we should begin our 
culinary studies by making bread. To make the best quality of 
bread it is necessary to use the best quality of flour.” 

“ But please tell us ” interrupted a bright eyed girl, “ how we are 
to know the best quality of flour?” 

“Good flour” replied the teacher, “should have a rich yellow cast 
and should be free from specks—a bluish white shade indicates 
that the impurities of the wheat berry have not been removed in 
milling. Good flour should have a slight gritty feeling. Avoid a 
flour that feels soft and salvy, and which when balled together in 
the hand, remains in a lump. Take some flour in the left hand, 
add a little water, and with the right forefinger mix a rather stiff 
dough in the hand. Let it stand ten minutes to set, then knead 
and work, in the hand, and if the flour is good the dough will be¬ 
come dryer and stiffer with working, and have an elastic rubbery 
feeling. While if the flour is of an inferior quality and lacking in 
strength, the dough will become soft and sticky under protracted 
working. There are various methods of testing flour, but these are 
some of the simplest. This flour” continued Miss Knight as she 
handled and mixed it, “ bears all the tests of excellence. But when 
you see and taste the bread made from it, the superior character of 
its quality will be more satisfactorily established.” 

“May I” said one of the pupils, “ask what brand of flour this 
is ? ” “ Certainly,” replied Miss Lucy, “ for although good bread can 
be made from any good brand of flour, I have very thoroughly tes¬ 
ted, and prefer to use, this which is called “ Orange Blossom.” 

“I should have thought” observed Sophie “that in this land of 
flowers and perpetual summer the manufacturer would have chosen 
some less common name—some name less familiar to the latitude 
in which it was manufactured—snow flake for instance, or some¬ 
thing similar ” 

“ Your suggestion in regard to names is especially appropriate in 
this case ” replied Miss Knight “since the flour we are using is not 
a product of the south but was manufactured at St. Paul in north¬ 
ern Minnesota—a latitude in which orange blossoms are rather rare. 
But to proceed with our lesson. The choicest flour—even the 
Orange Blossom—can not be converted into bread of the best qual¬ 
ity unless in conjunction with it you use fresh sweet yeast. The 
first thing, therefore, to be considered in bread making is the yeast. 





10 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


Be especially careful to use only good yeast. I prefer compressed 
yeast to any other, but when it is not attainable, good home-made 
yeast answers very well, although not so quick in its action.” 

“Please tell us something about yeast” said one of the pupils. 

“ Yeast” replied the teacher, “is a germ or plant, which when 
introduced into elements adapted to its nourishment, seizes upon 
and converts them into food for its sustenance, and while multiply¬ 
ing itself indefinitely by the natural process of growing, causes 
alcoholic fermentation, which is considered the best and most health¬ 
ful fermentation for bread making. Volumes have been written 
about yeasts and ferments, and the subject is a very complicated 
and interesting one, but as we haven’t the leisure to pursue it to¬ 
day I will simply tell you how to make yeast. And as I know of no 
better authority on the bread question then Mrs. Emma P. Ewing, 
who is in charge of the School of Domestic Economy of tho Agri¬ 
cultural College at Ames, Iowa, of which school I am proud to be a 
graduate, I will read the recipe for making yeast which she gives 
in her little manual on “Bread and Bread Making.” This is it: 
i Steep an eighth of an ounce of pressed, or a small handful of loose, 
hops in a quart of boiling water for about five minutes. Strain the 
boiling infusion upon half a pint of flour stirred to a smooth paste 
with a little cold water, mix well, boil a minute, add one ounce of 
salt and two ounces of white sugar, and when lukewarm stir in a 
gill of liquid yeast, or an ounce cake of compressed yeast dissolved 
in warm water. Let stand 24 hours, stirring occasionally, then 
cover closely, and set in a cool place. Yeast made in this manner 
will keep sweet for two weeks in summer and much longer in winter, 
and can be used at any time during that period for making bread, 
or for starting a fresh supply of yeast.’ ” 

“ But can’t yeast be made without yeast to start it with?” queried 
a pupil. 

“Q yes” said Miss Lucy, “there is n'o trouble wliatever in mak¬ 
ing a fement, popularly, but improper^, called yeast, without yeast 
to start it with. There are dozens of different articles from wliich 
it can be made, and such ferment will lighten bread; but it is not 
true yeast, and bread raised or lightened with it is not bread of the 
best quality. The lightness obtained from leaven, salt risings, and 
yeast made without yeast to start it, is the result of a putrefactive 
process, and is as objectionable as the lightness obtained from alum> 




YEAST MAKING. 


11 


ammonia, and other substances in most baking powders. Never 
use any of them, if you can possibly avoid it.” 

During the conversation which followed the reading of the recipe, 
Miss Knight had been all the while engaged in preparing the yeast 
according to the formula given in the manual. “ And now,” she 
added, while stirring in the liquid yeast which she had brought with 
her, “ we will cover the bowl, place it on a shelf in a corner of the 
room, and adjourn until 7 o’clock this evening, when we will meet 
again to set the ferment for to-morrow’s baking ” 

The morning session of the cooking school had proved so inter¬ 
esting that every member of the class was in her seat at the appointed 
hour, eager to hear and see something more about bread making. 
And as they all appeared anxious for the lesson to commence, Miss 
Lucy took her position by a table on which were several large 
earthen bowls, a pan of flour, a wooden spoon, some salt and a few 
other articles, and instructed them how to set the ferment. This 
was the method she gave them. “ Pour gradually, stirring mean¬ 
while, a quart of boiling water upon half a pint of flour, to which 
a small quantity of potato, well boiled and mashed, has been added. 
When the mixture has cooled to lukewarmness, add a gill of yeast, 
stir well, cover closely, and let stand till thoroughly light.” 

“ I notice ” said one of the girls that you do not use the yeast 
that was made in the lesson this morning. Why is this? 

“ Because,” replied the teacher, ‘ it is too new—is not sufficiently 
fermented. It is not best to use yeast until it is about three days 
old. If, however, very strong yeast has been added in its prepar¬ 
ation, and fermentation has been carried on rapidly, it may be used 
in twenty four hours, and in rare cases, even in twelve hours, after 
it has been made.” 

“Should potato always be used in setting ferment?” inquired 
another pupil. 

“ Some people always use it,” said Miss Lucy, “but there is a dif¬ 
ference of opinion among bread makers in regard to it. The 
general belief is that it quickens the action of yeast, and where 
there is the least doubt about the strength or integrity of yeast, it 
is perhaps advisable to use potato, or “fruit” as the bakers term it.” 

After the ferment had been prepared according to the recipe and 
put away, Miss Lucy informed the class that it would be light and 
ready to be used at 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning, but could stand 
without special detriment until 9 or 10 o clock. “ But she con- 




12 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK 


eluded, “ the sooner ferment is used after becoming light and foamy, 
the better the quality of the bread made with it, wdll be. If any of 
you wish to see bread of the best quality we will meet at 6 o’clock 
in the morning, and mix it.” The unanimous decision of the class 
was for assembling again at the early hour, and the pupils dispersed 
to their respective homes, leaving the teacher to complete her ar- 
arrangements for the morning lesson. 



View of the St. Paul Roller Mills, situated on the Mississippi River at St. Paul, 
Minnesota. It is at these mills that the Orange 
Blossom flour is produced. 



















































THE MYSTERIES OF BREAD MAKING UNFOLDED. 


13 


CHAPTER IY. 

THE MYSTERIES OF BREAD MAKING UNFOLDED. 


It was a perfect morning. Tlie sky never looked bluer, the sun 
never shone brighter, the birds never sang sweeter. The air was 
soft and balmy and every breeze was so laden with the fragrance of 
orange blossoms that it wooed to lethargy and indolence. But the 
lesson of yesterday had so excited the pupils of the cooking school that 
none of them were overcome by its enervating influence, or lingered a 
moment to enjoy its loveliness. A new realm appeared to have 
suddenly opened before them, and they were eager for information 
upon a subject that heretofore seemed tame and prosy—that now 
possessed a more than ordinary interest. There was not an absen¬ 
tee at the appointed hour. And when the bowl of ferment was 
uncovered it was found to be a mas of bubbles, into which Miss 
Knight dipped a wooden spoon, and moving it back and forth caused 
it to foam and sparkle, and emit a beery or alcoholic odor. The 
flour which had been weighed and sifted was added to the ferment 
gradually, until the mixture became too stiff to be easily stirred. 
The spoon was then taken from the mass, some flour sprinkled over 
it, and the adhering dough rubbed off. Elour in small quantities 
was then sprinkled on the dough close to the bowl until a wall of 
flour was formed around the outer edge of the dough. The pupils 
wntched the performance with intense earnestness, while Miss 
Knight in a manner similar to that by which she had cleaned the 
spoon, detached the dough from the bowl with the dainty fingers of 
her right hand and tossed it in a mass on the table, which had been 
sprinkled well with flour. The fingers of both hands were then 
used in folding the dough gently, but quickly, from the outer edge 
toward the center, the entire batch being turned round and round 
on the table as the kneading or molding proceeded. 

“ It is a great mistake,” the teacher remarked, as she continued 
to knead the dough with scarcely an effort, “to add flour rapidly in 
mixing bread, or to mix the dough so stiff that it requires a good 
deal of hard labor to knead it. In the days of our grandmothers, 
when milling was in its infancy and flour consequently of an in¬ 
ferior quality, considerable kneading may have been necessary. But 





14 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


flour made by the new roller mill process is so much superior to 
that in use half, or even quarter of a century ago, that if it is properly 
handled, most of the labor that used to be considered inseparable 
from bread making can be entirely avoided. Orange Blossom flour 
is a great labor saver in bread making, and whoever will put enough 
of heart and brain into the work to enable him to make an improve¬ 
ment on our present system of milling will add to the sum of human 
happiness by increasing the possibilities of better bread. Care 
should be taken in mixing bread to add the flour slowly and to work 
it in well—otherwise the dough will become so stiff that bread 
made from it will be devoid of delicacy and sweetness.” 

“ But how are we to know,” asked Sophie Southgate who was one 
of the most interested members of the class, “when dough is of the 
proper consistency—or is just stiff enough.” 

“A never failing indication,” replied Miss Lucy, £ ‘is w r hen it 
works clean and smooth and does not require flour to be rubbed on 
the hands or sprinkled on the molding board or table, to keep it 
from sticking to them. This you see has reached that point. I 
have given it at least half a dozen turns on the table without flour, 
and not a particle of dough sticks to the table or to my fingers. 
Who wishes to try it?” A dozen pairs of soft hands were washed 
and wiped dry, and in quick succession the rosy palms pressed and 
patted and fondled the smooth, elastic ball of dough, turning it 
round, and over, and about, so as to ascertain with accuracy how 
fine and spongy and resisting it should be. Then it was tucked 
away in a warm bowl nicely greased, and covered with a square of 
snowy linen barred with red lines, and a soft thin blanket, which 
hid the bowl and its precious contents entirely from view. 

“In three hours,” said Miss Knight, “this dough will be fully 
risen, and if any of you care to return at that time, and remain a 
couple of hours, you can have the satisfaction of seeing the bread 
we have made in our lesson, baked and ready for the table.” 

“ I shall be here for one,” observed Sophie Southgate, “ and now 
enter a claim for at least a portion of a loaf.” 

“And I, and I, and I,” was the unanimous response to Sophie’s 
jocular application. 

The pupils were all at the school room by the appointed time. 
Not a member of the class was absent or tardy. And as they laid 
aside their hats and parasols, and the various articles of embroidery 
they had brought with them, and gathered eagerly about the tabl e » 



THE MYSTERIES OF BREAD MAKING UNFOLDED. 


15 


Miss Lucy brought forth the bowl that had been tucked away so 
snugly in the morning, and exhibited it to them. The dough com¬ 
pletely filled it. 

“ I now wish to call your attention,” she began, “to several points 
that indicate quite accurately the proper lightness of dough. This 
batch, as the quantity of dough mixed at one time is called, which 
did not more than half fill the bowl when we put it aside this morn¬ 
ing, has doubled in size, and now fills it to the brim. The dough 
is soft you will observe, yet very elastic. When I press it slightly 
with my finger the indentation almost instantly disappears. And it 
is so aerated, that when I lift the bowl the dough seems scarcely to 
add to the weight of the bowl. When a batch of dough has doubled 
in size, is so elastic that indentations made in it will quickly disap¬ 
pear, and is so aerated that when lifted in the hand it seems to add 
scarcely any ■weight to the bowl or pan containing it, you may safely 
conclude it is light enough to be formed into loaves or rolls. And 
notice how beautifully round and full this is. The rounding up of 
dough in rising, whether in a batch or a loaf is a sign of its excel¬ 
lence. If a loaf of bread in rising remains flat on top—or comes up 
no higher in the middle than at the edges, there is something 
wrong with the dough, and the bread will not be of the best quality. 
This imperfect rising may be due to several causes—to damaged 
or inferior flour, to over heating the dough, to mixing it too soft, or 
to using poor yeast. Some people attribute it to luck. But there 
is no such thing as luck in bread making. The quality of bread 
that can be produced from any given quality of material when pro¬ 
perly manipulated, can be foretold with almost mathematical precis¬ 
ion by an intelligent bread maker, and there will never be a failure 
in bread making, if the materials are all of a good quality and the 
proper conditions are complied with.” 

After sifting a small quantity of flour upon the table she carefully 
removed the light, elastic dough from the bowl and placed it upon 
the flour. 

“ Now,” she continued “ you see the advantage of greasing the bowl 
before putting dough in it to rise. None of this dough sticks to the 
bowl, neither does any of it adhere to my fingers.” 

With a gentle rolling motion she brought the mass of dough, as 
it lay upon the table, into an oblong shape and with a sharp knife 
cut it into five pieces, each of which she deftly folded and rolled 
into the form most suitable for bread pans four inches in depth, 





16 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


four in width, and ten or twelve in length. After the loaves were 
placed in the pans which had been previously greased, they were 
ranged side by side on the table, and Miss Lucy then dipped a 
brush in a little melted butter and lightly brushed the top of each loaf. 

“ Why do you grease the bread after putting it in the pans?” 
asked Sophie. 

“ Grease,” replied Miss Lucy, as she covered the loaves with a 
bread towel and a flannel blanket, “ keeps the surface of the dough 
soft, and prevents it from becoming crusted while rising. “ But as 
yet,” she continued, “I have said nothing about temperature. It 
is quite important in bread making that, during the entire process, 
the ferment, sponge, and dough should be kept at the proper tem¬ 
perature—should not be allowed to get too warm or too cold. The 
temperature should also be kept as even as posible at every stage 
of bread making.” 

“What,” asked one of the pupils, “is the proper temperature?” 

“From 70° to 80° is the best temperature,” was Miss Lucy’s 
reply. “But in very cold weather the wetting for bread should be 
used somewhat warmer, and in hot weather somewhat cooler. In 
winter care must be taken to keep bread in a warm place wdiile 
rising, and in summer it is often necessary to find a cool place for 
it. But in no season should you let it rise over, or near a stove or 
range, where the warmth will be unequal.” 

“ Mother uses tin pans for mixing bread,” said a pupil who ap¬ 
peared engrossed with the subject, “ are they not better then these 
heavy bowls?” 

“The very reverse,” replied the teacher. ” When bread is put to 
rise in these bovds—if they are warm and well covered—it will be 
much better protected from atmospheric changes and kept at a more 
even temperature, than it can be in tin pans.” 

“ How long will these loaves require to rise before they are ready 
for baking?” asked another pnpil. 

“An hour is the appointed time,” replied the teacher, “but as 
fermentation is hastened or retarded by changes of temperature, 
it sometimes requires a shorter, and sometimes a longer period. 
The length of time is also affected by the quality of the flour and 
yeast. I think the limit to-day will be an hour.” 

As the clock struck eleven Miss Lucy examined the loaves, and 
discovered they had risen nearly to the rim of the pans, they were 
then passed from hand to hand that the indications of perfect light- 



THE MYSTERIES OF BREAD MAKING UNFOLDED. 


17 


ness which had been mentioned as characteristics of good dough, 
and evidences of good flour, might be observed and tested. None 
of them were lacking. They filled the bill completely, and were 
pronounced satisfactory in every respect. 

“ But,” asked one of the girls, ” can bread get too light? 

A great many people fancy it can not,” replied Miss Lucy. 
“ But when bread is allowed to get too light it becomes coarse¬ 
grained, and loses much of its nutriment, and most of the fine nutty 
flavor that good bread always possesses.” 

Before putting the loaves to bake, Miss Lucy called the attention 
of her pupils to the temperature of the oven which she said was an 
important factor in bread making, as a great deal of bread was 
spoiled by being put to bake in an oven either too hot, or not hot 
enough. “If,” she continued, “ on opening the oven door suddenly, 
a puff of hot air rushes out, it may be safely assumed that the oven 
is about right for baking. Tested by that rule our oven appears 
to be hot enough. Let us try another test and see if it be not too 
hot, and she threw a half teaspoonful of flour on the bottom of the 
oven and closed the door. In two minutes she opened it and found 
the flour nicely browned. “ This shows the heat to be just right, 
if the oven had been too hot for baking bread perfectly, the flour 
would have browned in one minute, and then burned, or turned black. 
If it had not been hot enough it would have taken three minutes at 
least to brown the flour.” 

“ But if the oven should be too hot when bread is put to bake, or 
should afterward get too hot, would it not be easy to reduce the 
temperature by leaving the door ajar?” asked a pupil. 

“ Opening the oven door,” said Miss Lucy, “would certainly reduce 
the temperature of the oven, but would also be likely to ruin the 
bread. Never resort to such a remedy. Put a small basin or vessel 
containing cold water into the oven, and the heat will be lessened 
instantly without damage to the bread.” 

When the bread had been in the oven fifteen minutes the teacher 
opened the door, changed the position of some of the loaves, and 
called the attention of the class to the faint tinge of golden brown 
that was beginning to appear on them. Fifty minutes passed. 
The faint brown tinge had deepened and spread all over the loaves. 
Miss Lucy removed them from the pans, and as she placed each 
loaf upon the palm of her hand, and held it there an instant, she said 
“ A loaf of bread that can be held on the palm of the hand without 




18 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


burning it, is well baked. A loaf that emits a hollow sound when 
tapped upon the bottom with the fingers, may also be considered 
sufficiently done; but an unfailing test of thorough baking is the 
apparent lightness of the loaf when lifted and tossed in the hand. 
The slightest feeling of heaviness in a loaf of bread is adequate 
evidence that it has not been sufficiently baked and needs to be in¬ 
stantly returned to the oven and baked ten or fifteen minutes more.’ 4 

When the five lovely loaves had been removed from the pans and 
placed on a net work of wire before an open window to cool, they 
were so evenly browned, so regular in form, so delicious in fragrance, 
and so perfectly beautiful in every respect that Sophie declared she 
would never consent to have such specimens spoiled by being cut 
while warm, and that she would relinquish her claim to any portion 
of them until the next day, and hoped the other claimants w r ould do 
the same. They all cheerfully consented to do so after hearing 
Sophie’s eloquent plea, and then unanimously resolved that their 
first lesson in bread making had been an eminent success. 

i 



BURIED BAKERIES. 


19 


CHAPTER V, 

BURIED BAKERIES. 


The next morning Miss Lucy came near being late at school, from 
lingering at the breakfast table to listen to an interesting descrip¬ 
tion of an ancient Pompeiian bakery given by an enthusiastic anti¬ 
quarian, who chanced to be visiting at Tom Knight’s. 

“ The old Greeks and Romans had a thousand luxuries of which 
we know nothing,” remarked the antiquarian, spreading a thin 
slice of white bread with honey and then taking a bite out of it 
large enough to indicate that he appreciated at least one of the 
luxuries of this degenerate age. “ Ah, those were the days when 
men lived.” < 

He handed up his cup for more coffee, and while his eyes wan¬ 
dered over the bright silver and snowy drapery of the breakfast 
table, he shook his head in sympathy for the present generation. 

“ Now in the matter of bread,” put in Mrs. Knight, “ I suppose 
the ancients were much better off than we are. But really, I can 
not conceive—I really can not—how flour could possibly be made 
whiter than our last barrel of Orange Blossom, or bread sweeter 
than this. But I suppose these things must have been done, as we 
are so far behind the ancients in everything else.” 

She held a lump of sugar suspended over a coffee cup, waiting 
for the antiquarian to endorse her remarks, as usual, with incidents 
of modern inferiority. 

But he was slow to speak; he crammed his mouth full of bread 
and honey, and fell to counting the squares in the damask table 
cloth. 

“ I say the ancients probably had much finer bread than we 
have,” persisted Mrs. Knight; “am I right?” 

“Well,—ah—um. I am afraid—. Sarah” (turning to a maid 
who had just deposited the morning’s mail on a side table) “step 
into my room, and bring me the photographs in the top drawer of 
my bureau.” 

When the photographs came, the antiquarian made a confession 
of modern superiority, perhaps for the first time in his life. 





20 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 



“No,” lie said, decisively, “we are far in advance in the matter 
of bread making. Theirs was a higher degree of civilization; they 
made finer pictures, more noble statuary; were farther advanced 
than are we in architectural art; but they could not make flour or 
bread. This photograph was taken in Pompeii, a couple of years 
since and represents one of the best flour mills and bakeries of that 
age, as it stands uncovered to-day.” 

He handed the photograph (a copy of which is here reproduced) 


across the table, and proceeded to explain it, premising his expla¬ 
nation with the statement: 

“ Pompeii, before it was buried under the ashes of Vesuvius, 
was Pome and Athens in miniature. It had all the luxuries of 
both cities, perfumed baths, paintings, statuary, sumptuous gar¬ 
ments, and all the pleasures of the table known in that age. Hence 
we may rely upon it that this mill and bakery is a fair model of the 
best known in olden times. 

In the first place, you must know that the miller and the baker 
of those days was generally one and the same individual. He 
ground his wheat, and baked it into bread in the same room. 

“Won’t you explain the photograph,” said Sophie, “what ar.e 
those four objects that look like dice boxes? ” 

“ In our photograph, the four cylindrical shapes, to the right, are 
mills; the room, with arched doors to the left, is the oven. In 
















































POMPEIIAN MILLS. 


21 


order that you may understand liow the mills ground wheat, it will 
be necessary for you to keep your eye on this sectional drawing oi 
a single mill, while I talk.” 

He produced the cut printed below, and in his enthusiasm forgot 
his bread and honey; forgot his rapidly cooling coffee; forgot every¬ 
thing but Pompeii and its whilom buried bakeries. 





“ The base of the mill marked “ 0,” is a cylindrical stone, about 
five feet in diameter and two feet high. Upon this, forming part 
of the same block, is a conical projection, also about two feet high, 
marked “ B.” Upon this there rests another block , ts A,” externally 
resembling a dice box, internally an hour glass, being shaped like 
two hollow cones with their vertices toward each other, the lower 
one fitting over the cone “ B,” the upper one being open at the 
mouth and serving as a hopper. The grain was poured in at the 
mouth: the dice box A’’was then revolved, by means of the 
wooden handles “ D ” (which of course were burned away when Pom¬ 
peii was engulfed by fire, eighteen hundred years ago, but have been 
added in the cut), and the grain was ground between the inner 
surface of the box, and the outer surface of the cone f, B,” working 
its way, by degrees, to the bottom and falling out through the 
grooved channel cut in the stone, onto the broad base. 

The whole mill stands some six feet high, and is made of vol¬ 
canic stone, which of course became gradually worn away in the 
process of milling and contributed not a little grit to the flour* 
You can imagine what this flour was—dark, full of wheat beards, 
bran husks, grit from the mills and dirt of all kinds. And yet it 
was the best flour known to a pecTple whose works of art are studied 
to advantage by our greatest artists. 

The mills were generally turned by hand, mostly by slaves, of 
whom every Pompeiian of any station posessed a number. The 















22 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


slaves were often women, and it requires but a little stretch of im¬ 
agination for us, with this picture before us, to see in our mind’s 
eye the old mill in operation—eight weary women trudging about 
in a circle, each with the wooden mill handle before her; the busy 
baker gathering up the flour as it fell onto the slabs, kneading it 
into bread, and thrusting the bread into the ovens by means of 
long-handled wooden paddles. 

In one part of Rome the use of water wheels superceded hand 
power in some of the flour mills, shortly after the date of our pic¬ 
ture, and Antipater of Tliessalonica congratulated the women slaves 
upon their release from the drudgedy in these words: £ Set not 

your hands to the mill, O women that turn the millstones! Sleep 
sound, though the cock’s crow announce the dawn, for Ceres has 
charged the nymphs with the labors which employed your arms; 
these, dashing from the summit of a wheel, make its axle revolve, 
which by the help of moving radii, sets in action the weight of four 
hollow mills. We taste anew the life of the first men since we have 
learned to enjoy without fatigue the produce of ceres.’ 

In the museum at Naples, they have several loaves of bread 
taken from this very oven in our picture, some of them are much 
burned and blackened, while others look perfectly natural, as though 
they had been baked but yesterday. If you will bake a loaf of 
rye bread in a round vegetable dish, about eight inches in diameter, 
and score the top with lines and figures, you will have a pretty fair 
imitation of a loaf of Pompeiian bread. 

S^-pae of the flour also, was found in one of the mills, after the 
ashes had been carefully removed by the excavators. Much of it 
was reduced to a cinder; but in the centre some lumps of whitish 
matter resembling chalk remained, which when wetted and placed 
on a red hot iron gave out the peculiar odor of burning flour. 

Speaking of Naples and the museum there, reminds me of the 
fact that to this day there are hundreds of flour mills in Italy which 
are turned by hand.” 

“ And the flour how does it compare with ours?” 

The antiquarian shrugged his shoulders. “ It is not flour, it is 
only meal,” he said. “In this thing we lead the world, and will 
continue to do so, so long as enterprise among our millers, is en¬ 
couraged and the hard wheats of Minnesota retain their present 
excellence.” 



LUCY’S WHIM. 


23 


CHAPTEB VL 
lucy’s whim. 


Lucy Knight graduated at a western University with distinguished 
honors, and her father who was a wealthy banker, fancied she 
would quietly nestle down in the soft palm of society, and wait 
for some respectable young man to come along and offer her a 
career. But life was full of meaning for Lucy, and seemed so 
crowded with splendid possibilities that every fibre of her being re¬ 
volted at the idea of frittering away valuable years in such an 
indolent condition of existence. And when she read an account of 
the School of Domestic Economy at Ames, she at once resolved to 
take the course, and qualify herself for teaching that important 
branch of science. The need of better cookery and a higher order 
of house work was so apparent to her, that had she been actuated 
by mercenary motives alone, she would have taken hold of this ne¬ 
glected industry as a profitable pecuniary enterprise, as an occu¬ 
pation in which money could be earned as readily and rapidly as in 
any other to which a woman could turn her attention. But her 
individuality asserted itself so forcibly in the desire to improve 
the average home that she would have devoted her energies to the 
task even as mission work, rather than have led the conventional 
life of inactivity young women in her position are accustomed 
to lead. 

Her father’s conservative turn of mind induced him to think 
“ Lucy’s whim,” as he termed his daughter’s expressed desire to 
obtain a diploma from the new school at Ames, would terminate 
with a slight acquaintance with the household arts and he raised no 
objection to her prospect as he was willing to acquiesce in any of 
her wishes that did not outrage the social proprieties. But he was 
considerably disappointed as time rolled on, and his daughter’s 
ardor in the study of home economics increased, and her interest 
in fashionable frivolities decreased proportionately. And although 
really not displeased, he had not sufficient moral courage, to urge 
her to press on and perfect herself in the various branches of her 
chosen profession. His brother Tom, however, who was “running 
an orange ranch” as he insisted on designating his orange growing 





24 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


operations in Florida, was sucli an enthusiast on the subject of 
cookery and housekeeping that the moment he heard of his niece 
going to work to make a practical study of domestic economy, he 
sat down and wrote her a long letter, entreating her to go on earn¬ 
estly in the prosecution of her studies and qualify herself as a 
practical liouskeeper, and as a teacher of all the household arts. 
“ The time,” he wrote “ is ripe for such instruction in the South. A 
number of ladies in tliis immediate neighborhood wall give you a 
hearty welcome. Your aunt Carrie is enlisted for life in the cru¬ 
sade for better cookery. And if you will send me a design for a 
model school building, adapted to instruction in either cookery or 
general household science, I will show r my faith in the cause, and 
my devotion to it, by having the building in readiness for you. I 
will go even further and promise to have a sufficient number of 
pupils for a class, ready to receive instructions from you the week 
after your arrival.” 

Tom Knight w r as a marvelously energetic fellow r , and wdienever 
he undertook anything he carried it to a successful termination. 
His “orange ranch” so engrossed his time and attention that a 
ten years residence in the south had not destroyed a jot of his wes¬ 
tern go-ahead liveness, and when the scheme of raising a class to take 
cookery lessons, and of building a house in which the lessons should 
bv given flashed upon his restless and fertile brain he seized it with 
a resolute grip, and “ pushed things ” until the vague and shadowy 
scheme had been wrought into a substantial fact, an accomplished 
reality. The correspondence between Lucy and her uncle continued 
uninterruptedly until she obtained her diploma as Mistress of 
Household Science, and she then according to arrangement 'went to 
visit uncle Tom, and to open the cooking school in Florida. 

“This morning” said Miss Knight, as she took her position by 
the table, “ I propose making bread by a somewhat different process 
from that of yesterday; a process that shortens the usual limit of 
making and baking a batch of bread about one half, and reduces the 
amount of labor considered indispensible for bread making to the 
minimum; a process that akways produces sweet, delicious bread, 
and is pronounced by those wdio have given it an unprejudiced trial 
the best method for making bread yet discovered. This compressed 
yeast, which I received from Cincinnati by express last night, I 
shall use in the lesson to-day,” and she exhibited several cakes of 
yeast wrapped in tin foil. And then as she removed the wrapping 




SHORT PROCESS OF BREAD MAKING. 


25 


from one of them, and crumbled the yeast into a bowl, she con¬ 
tinued, “ a safe general rule for making bread with Orange Blossom 
flour when compressed yeast is used, is to dissolve an ounce cake of 
the yeast and a teaspoonful of salt, in a quart of lukewarm wetting, 
to gradually work in flour until the dough is of a sufficient consis¬ 
tency to be turned or lifted from the bowl in a mass, and then to 
knead, adding flour as desired, until it can be worked without stick¬ 
ing to the board or the fingers. "Whenever it becomes stiff enough 
to work without sticking, it should be put in a greased earthen bowl 
of the proper temperature, have the surface lightly brushed with 
melted butter, be covered with bread towel and blanket and set in 
a warm place till light, -which will be in about three hours. It 
.should then be formed into loaves or rolls, put in greased pans, 
covered as before, and again set to rise for an hour, or until light, 
and then baked. 

For making bread by this method, the length of time required, 
from the moment the ingredients are stirred together until the 
loaves come from the oven, thoroughly baked, rarely exceeds five 
hours, and is frequently an hour less, while the necessary kneading 
can be performed with a comparatively trifling amount of labor. 
Yesterday I used no salt in mixing the dough, to-day I added a teas¬ 
poonful ; but you will remember that in preparing the yeast yes¬ 
terday I added an ounce of salt. And that I consider a sufficient 
amount of salt for the bread that can be made from the quantity of 
yeast then prepared. Some people add salt to the ferment at every 
baking. I add none when using home-made yeast, and only a small 
Quantity when using compressed yeast. Salt destroys the fine flavor 
of bread, and also acts as a check upon fermentation. Much bread 
is impaired by salt, and equally as much by sugar and grease. Use 
the former very sparingly. Avoid the two latter entirely. The 
old adage says ‘ good wine needs no bush,’ and it can be said with 
equal truthfulness, good flour and yeast need no sugar or grease, 
and but little salt.” 

“You gave us the test of good flour yesterday,” interrupted a 
pupil,” will you not now give us the test of good yeast?” 

“ Good yeast,” replied the teacher, “ consists of cells that ger¬ 
minate in the sponge at a certain temperature. But the purity, 
strength and comparative character of different varieties of yeast 
can only be ascertained by chemical and microscopic examinations. 



26 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


The sour, flat loaf, ancl flinty crust are, however, always the pro¬ 
ducts of diseased ferments, and whenever these evidences of de¬ 
gradation are observed, the yeast should be thrown away. It is 
more difficult to recognize good yeast than good flour. But there 
is generally little trouble in procuring either. Pleiclimann & Co. 
alone—without mentioning the numerous other manufacturers— 
have 600 wagons and 600 agents engaged delivering their com¬ 
pressed yeast in the United States and Canada; and the St. Paul 
Holler Mill Co. is Introducing the Orange Blossom flour into every 
neighborhood as rapidly as circumstances will premit.” 

The teacher paused a moment, stepped to a table concealed by a 
dainty white curtain, and uncovered a row of sheet iron pans about 
fifteen inches is length, two inches in diameter, and semi-circular, or 
half round, in form. “ These small roll pans,” she said, “ contain 
dough that was mixed with compressed yeast four hours ago. I 
molded it into rolls and placed them in these pans not quite an hour 
since, but as they are beautifully light, and the oven is at the 
proper temperature I will now put them to bake. In twenty five 
minutes they will be baked thoroughly, and will be so crisp and 
crusty that they can be eaten warm, even by dyspeptics.” 

“In what respect,” asked Sophie Southgate, “does the famous 
Yienna bread differ from the bread made yesterday and to day?” 

“ In none whatever,” replied the teacher. “ The bread you have 
received instruction in making is genuine Yienna bread, made 
according to the recipe given by Prof. Horsford, who was sent to 
Yienna by our government to learn the method of making it. It 
is, however, much superior to the Yienna bread sold in most of our 
cities as it is less tough, has a more delicate flavor, and retains its 
rich, nutty taste for several days. 

“Does it not injure the dough to let it lie after kneading it?” 
asked a pupil. 

“ On the contrary I think dough is improved by resting,” replied 
Miss Lucy, as she drew the batch which she had laid aside toward 
her again, detached a piece from it a piece large enough for an 
ordinary size loaf and separated it into a dozen irregular pieces 
about half an inch in thickness. “And now,” she continued, “I 
■will give you instructions in making imperial rolls. I take separ¬ 
ately each of these pieces, in my left hand, and slightly stretch with 
the thumb and forefinger of my right hand one of the irregular 
points over my left thumb toward the centre of the roll. I repeat 




IMPERIAL ROLLS. 


27 


this operation, turning the piece of dough as it proceeds, each time 
lifting my thumb and gently pressing it upon the last fold until al 
the points have been drawn in, when I turn the roll face down¬ 
ward in the pan to rise. If the folding is properly done an im¬ 
perial roll when baked, will be composed of a succession of sheets 
or layers of delicate tenacious crumb surrounded with a thin crisp 
crust.” 

Each roll was manipulated in the same manner, and when the 
last one was placed in the pan the teacher quickly shaped the 
balance of the dough into French rolls similar to those she had put 
to bake, and laying them tenderly in their respective pans, set them 
aside to rise. As the time allotted to the baking had expired Miss 
Lucy opened the oven door, and the eyes of her pupils sparkled 
with astonishment as the slender brown beauties were slipped one 
after another from the pans, and ranged side by side upon the table 
She then informed the class that such bread was more delicious 
when eaten fresh, and on account of its being so perfectly baked 
and so extremely crusty, was as wholesome even when warm 
as ordinary loaf bread when a day old. But little argument was 
required to convince the pupils of this fact, and each member of 
the class left the school room the posessor of a cake of compressed 
yeast, a french roll pan, and one of the rolls baked during the morn 
ing lesson. 


9 



28 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


CHAPTEB YII. 

A LETTER FROM FLORIDA 


Grandmother Perkins liad received several letters from Sophie 
since she had been in the south. And as she wrote in a cheerful vein, 
and always spoke of her improved health the old lady concluded 
her granddaughter had gotten rid of the advanced ideas she held 
on the food question, and felt rather sorry for the change. For 
after she and Sophie had had the discussion about the school of 
domestic economy, the old lady had given the subject more thought 
than she had ever done before, and concluded there might be a 
great deal of truth in the views her granddaughter had advocated. 
It was at least becoming quite interesting to her, and whatever she 
saw in the papers and magazines that had a bearing upon the ques¬ 
tion, she read with avidity. One day she read in a Boston paper 
a letter from Florida, giving a graphic description of a cooking school 
recently opened at Tom’s Bancli in that state by a handsome and 
cultured young heiress from Minnesota, and stating that the ladies 
for miles around were fairly wild about making bread with Orange 
Blossom flour and compressed yeast, according to the method taught 
in the cooking school, and that the cooking craze was spreading 
over the state. Grandmother Perkins looked in vain for the loca¬ 
tion of the cooking school on the map. “Tom’s Bancli” being merely 
a local cognomen for Tom Knight’s orange plantation, and she 
finally determined to send the paper containing the letter to Sophie, 
and ask her if she had heard anything of the young heiress and the 
new cooking school. Before she had time, however to carry her 
resolution into effect, she received another letter from Sophie; and 
this was the letter:—- 

Bear Grandma: I am growing better every day, in fact, I liavn’t been 
so well since I was a little girl as I am now. And I attribute the change in my 
health mainly to the change in my diet. The change of climate and scenery 
no doubt did me good—at least I felt better for several weeks after I came 
South, than I did when I left home—but the food, especially the bread that I 
was obliged to eat was so horid I soon lost all I had gained. To tell the real 
truth, grandma, the cooking in this part of the South is just as bad as it is in 
New England. They don’t have cookies and fried cakes and such things for 
tea here every day, as we do at home. But then they have a great many ar¬ 
ticles of food that are not a bit better or healthier. Eor instance they have 





A LETTER FROM FLORIDA. 


29 


Borne kind of warm bread fof breakfast every morning—generally wretched, 
red hot, half baked soda, or baking powder biscuit. They have taken a new 
departure, however, at the house of the lady where I am boarding, and our 
bread is now of the very best quality—perfectly delicious—made with Orange 
Blossom flour, Fleischmann’s compressed yeast and according to the 
formula used in the Iowa School of Domestic Economy. We have French 
rolls, crescents and about a dozen other kinds of bread fresh baked, or re¬ 
warmed, that look so beautiful, smell so fragrant and taste so delicious it is a 
real comfort to have them on the table, and I am always glad now when meal 
time comes. The varieties of bread we have are all just lovely. And the rolls 
are so crusty and nutty flavored that I can eat them at every meal, warm or 
cold, according to fancy, and enjoy themas I never enjoyed bread before; and 
when I leave the table, I don’t feel oppressed or uncomfortable in any way, 
or don’t have a nasty taste in my mouth, as I always do after eating baking 
powder buscuit, and the ordinary run of light bread. Why grandma, would 
you believe it, I’ve actually gained five pounds since I’ve had good bread to 
eat. And if I keep on gaining flesh as I’ve been doing lately, I expect in a 
short time I’ll be what Aunt Hepziba would call “ quite corpulent.” I know 
you’ll be astonished to hear there is a cooking school about half a mile from 
our house, at Tom’s Ranch—the funny name given to a large orange plantation 
owned by Mr. Tom Knight, a -whole souled gentlemen so much interested m 
having housekeeping and cookery lifted out of the atmosphere of ignorance, and 
placed among the intelligent sciences, that he has built and fitted up a school 
room at his own expense. And his niece Miss Lucy Knight, the daughter of 
a wealthy Minnesota banker, a graduate of a western university and also of 
the Iowa School of Domestic Economy, is the teacher. She is one of the 
sweetest and handsomest girls I ever met, has a very large class at the new 
school, and we pupils—I am one of them—are all in love with her. I had no 
idea house work was anything but drudgery until I heard Miss Knight discuss 
it, and now it seems to me to be one of the most interesting and attractive 
branches of study. I find something new and suggestive in it every day. As 
for bread making, that is such a perfect pleasure, I could easily spend half my 
time experimenting with yeast and flour, and dabbling in dough. I help the 
girls where I board make bread and rolls, etc., three or four times a week and 
never tire of the work. Many of the ladies in this neighborhood who have 
been keeping house twenty five years, say they never dreamed there could be 
such ditfierence in the quality of bread as there is between what they used to 
eat, and what they have now, and that they learned more about bread from 
Miss Knight in a single lesson than they learned from cook books in all their 
lives before. If I sent you a manual on “ Bread and Bread Making,” giving 
complete instructions for making various kinds of bread, rolls, etc., and one of 
the pans we bake French rolls in, I know you would never use either, sol will 
let you wait till my return home for them; but to-morrow or next day I intend 
Bending you by mail a specimen of the French rolls that I eat with impunity 
and enjoy so much—and that we cooking school pupils call the “ staff of life,” 
“little brown beauties” and such pet names. Affectionately, 

Sophie. 

P. S.—Col. Frank Mayo from Boston is down here on some land buying en¬ 
terprise. He and several other gentlemen from the North are interested in 




30 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


the project, and he is acting as agent for the concern and will remain in Flor¬ 
ida several months perhaps. The ladies connected with the cooking schol are 
going to have a picnic in a short time—or rather Mr. Tom Ivnight is going to 
get up a picnic—and the cooking school pupils are to prepare the entertain¬ 
ment. Col. Mayo, and quite a number of other gentlemen will be present, 
and we are all anticipating a pleasant day in the range groves. 

P. S. Ko. 2.—You needn’t think because my letter is mainly about bread 
and rolls, and twists and so on, that I have spent all my time at cooking school 
mixing plain bread dough; and to convince you that such is not the fact I 
have copied from my note book a few receipts that you can give to any of the 
neighbors who wish to try them. They have all been thoroughly tested at the 
cooking school and.approved by teacher and pupils. 

FEDERAL BREAD. 

Beat two eggs with a pint of water in which half an ounce of compressed 
yeast and a teaspoonful of salt have been dissolved, and gradually stir in a 
pound and a quarter of Orange Blossom flour, then add a tablespoonful of 
creamed butter, put into a pan and let rise. When baked, slice it all the way 
through, into half inch slices, butter generously and replace until the loaf re¬ 
sumes its original shape. Serve hot. This is a favorite bread for either break¬ 
fast or tea in some parts of the South. It is sometimes called Sally Lunn and 
sometimes Washington’s breakfast bread. Sugar is added frequently, and the 
receipt often varied in other respects. 

DOUGH NUTS. 

Sift three pints of Orange Blossom flour into a pan. Make a hole in the 
centre, into which put half a pound of sugar, a gill of buttermilk or thick sour 
milk, two eggs, two ounces of butter, a teaspoonful of soda, and flavoring to 
taste. Mix these ingredients well together, into a very srnoth dough, roll out, 
cut into form, and fry in boiling lard. 

CREAM CRACKERS. 

Sift together a quart of Orange Blossom flour and a teaspoonful each of cream 
of tartar and soda. Work into a dough with a teacup of sweet milk and a 
tablespoonful of butter, roll thin, cut into form, and bake in a quick oven. 
After the crackers are baked let them dry on the back part of the stove. 

FLANNEL CAKES. 

Dissolve a cake of compressed yeast and a teaspoonful of salt in a quart of 
warm water, stir in three pints of Orange Blossom flour and corn meal mixed 
in equal proportions, let rise till light, then bake on a griddle. 

MUFFINS. 

Beat thoroughly together a quart of milk, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder 
and two quarts of Orange Blossom flour. Bake in muffin rings or puff pans in 
a quick oven. 

NOTIONS. 

Work together, into a soft dough, a pint of Orange Blossom flour a table¬ 
spoonful of salt, two ounces of butter or lard and the requisite quantity of 
sweet milk. Roll very thin, cut into cakes about four inches in diameter and 
bake in a hot oven till a bright brown. 



READING (C BETWEEN THE LINES.” 


31 


Grandmother Perkins had a shrewd suspicion, when she read 
Sophie’s letter, that the visit of Col. Mayo to the south was not al¬ 
together for the purpose of buying land, and that it probably had 
as beneficial an effect upon Sophie’s health as Florida air or cook¬ 
ing school bread. But the old lady never ventured a remark on 
the subject of her suspicions as she and the neighbors gossiped 
about the receipts Sophie had so kindly sent, or discussed the pro¬ 
priety of having some grocer in the neighborhood procure, and 
keep on sale, both Orange Blossom flour and compressed yeast. 
The receipt of the roll by mail, however a few days after the letter, 
so increased Mrs. Perkins’ interest in cookery that she made haste 
to reply to Sophie’s letter, and urge her to send without delay one 
of the roll pans and a copy of the manual on Bread and Bread 
Making. 



32 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


CHAPTER YHI. 

PURELY PASTRY. 


“As pastry and pie istlie subject of our lesson to-day” said Miss 
Knight, as the class assembled, I do not know that I can preface 
our exercises with anything more appropriate than a cpiotation from 
a lecture of Mrs. Ewing, which I find in a newspaper. She says: 

‘ In spite of lachrymal lamentations about the unliealthfulness of 
pie, and dreary diatribes on the indigestibility of pastry, it has 
not been satisfactorily established that any more dyspepsia lurks 
in the average pie than in the average pancake, breakfast roll, or 
baking powder buscuit. And no hygienist has yet shown that pie 
properly made, perfectly baked, and judiciously eaten, is not supe¬ 
rior in all respects to any of these articles, even at their best estate. 

Pie analytically considered, is certainly harmless. Why should 
it when synthetically accepted, be deleterious to health? If the 
flour, the butter, the water, the fruit, the vegetables, the meat, or 
the other ingredients of which it is composed, are separately nutri¬ 
tious and wholesome, why should they when properly compounded 
into into a savory admixture, and built up into a toothsome pie, be¬ 
come at once innutritious and harmful. There is evidently ‘ a mis¬ 
sing link ’ somewhere in the logical chain of the anti-pie people, 
and I think I voice the sentiments of a large constituency, in say¬ 
ing that pies properly made, are as digestible and healthful as any 
of the ordinary articles of diet.” 

Putting down the paper from which she read, Miss Lucy uncov¬ 
ered one of the tables and proceeded to work and talk: “To make 
puff paste use three quarters of a pound of butter to each pound of 
flour. Spread a napkin in a pan of cold water, put the butter in the 
napkin and work with the hand until pliable and waxy, being care¬ 
ful to keep the napkin between the hand and the butter. Bring 
the butter into a compact roll and flatten to about half an inch in 
thickness. Reserve one eighth for mixing with the flour. Mix the 
flour and the reserved portion of the butter with cold water, to a 
stiff, smooth paste, and work it well with the finger tips for about 
fifteen minutes, or until it ceases to stick to the board, then roll it 
into a circular form about an inch in thickness. Lay the butter in 




rUFF PASTE. 


33 

the centre, fold over the dongh so as to enclose the butter and leave 
the paste rectangular in shape. Roll till reduced to three quarters 
of an inch in thickness. Fold over twice, and roll down as before. 
Repeat this operation six times more. Fold again twice, and lay 
it in a cool place for at least half an hour. At the end of that time 
it can be rolled into any required thickness, cut in any form desired 
and baked.” 

The teacher’s manipulations had kept place with her instructions, 
and folding the paste as stated in the lesson, she laid it aside, and 
continued her remarks. “A great deal of nonsense has been writ¬ 
ten and published about a marble slab, a glass rolling pin and old 
process, pastry flour being indispensible for the proper preparation 
of puff paste; and the general impression is that one must be equip¬ 
ped with costly apparatus, and have a peculiar kind of flour for 
making the paste, with unlimited pans of ice for packing it in every 
few minutes during the operation, etc., etc. Life is too short to re- 
ute all the absurd things that have been written on the subject of 
puff paste, it is in fact, almost too short to go through with its prep¬ 
aration according to the specific rules given in some cook books. 
A marble slab, a glass rolling pin and plenty of ice are very conve¬ 
nient when preparing puff paste, but are not indispensible. For 
making puff paste of the finest quality, the only requisite, if supple¬ 
mented by skillful rolling and folding of the dough, are, a smooth 
molding board, a good rolling pin, cold water, a cool room, choice 
butter, and flour of the best quality. The best of pastry, like the 
best of bread, can always be made of the finest grade of roller mill 
flour—and in puff paste, as in bread, Orange Blossom flour always 
gives satisfactory results.” 

“How many layers of this paste” eagerly inquired half a dozen 
pupils, “do you put in a patty, or vol-au-vent?” 

“A patty ” replied Miss Ivnight, “ should be composed of but a 
single layer of puff paste; but that layer, if the paste if properly 
made, contains about 2300 thin sheets of dough separated by butter, 
and should in baking puff, or rise up, from four to seven times its 
original thickness—as you will see when we bake this—and any 
paste that does not so rise in the baking, is poor, course stuff, un¬ 
worthy the name of puff paste.” 

“ But puff paste is not used in making crusts for ordinary pies, 
Is it?’* asked Sophie Southgate. 




34 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


“O no,” replied tlie teacher, “it is generally used only on spe¬ 
cial occasions, and for special purposes. A choice and delicate pie 
crust, that most people prefer to puff paste, is made with a pound 
of flour, a quarter of a pound of butter, a quarter of lard, half a 
teaspoonful of salt, and a little cold water, and in this manner. 
Put the flour on the molding board, spread the butter and lard 
through it in flakes, moisten with the water, draw into a heap, dust 
oyer with flour, and roll out tenderly. Fold and roll out two or 
three times, and lay aside till you are ready to use it. Or, if ready: 
take a little more than the fourth for one crust. Flour the board 
and dough, and roll to the size required. Place upon the tin or 
dish, shaping to the same, and cut off around the edge with a sharp 
knife. If you wish to make an apple pie, fill with eights, or smaller 
pieces, of pared tart apples, roll an upper crust and lay oyer them, 
trim around the edge as before, press the crusts together very 
lightly, and bake in a quick oven. While the pie is baking, melt 
together in a small stew pan two or three ounces of sugar, a small 
piece of butter and the juice of an orange, or some grated pineapple, 
and when the pie is taken from the oven, slip it to the plate on 
which it is to be served, lift off the upper crust, pour the seasoning 
over the apples and replace the crust. In an hour it will be at 
its best and as delicious a pie as any one can desire. Nearly all 
kinds of fruit pies can be made in this manner, and may be seasoned 
or left unseasoned according to fancy. Instead of filling this crust 
with apples or other fruit before baking, I shall fill it with a very 
different material,” and taking several pieces of soft white linen 
Miss Lucy put them in her pie, rolled an upper crust and laid it 
over them, then proceeded to make another pie, which she filled in 
a similar manner, of the remaining dough. A full half hour having 
elapsed since the puff paste had been laid aside, she placed it on 
the molding board, rolled it into a sheet somewhat less than an 
eighth of an inch in thickness, from which she cut a dozen or more 
circular and diamond shaped cakes, and arranging them on a bak¬ 
ing tin, put them and the linen-filled pies into the oven. 

“With paste, or pastry, or pie crust, whichever you choose to call 
it,” continued Miss Lucy after the short interruption, “made accor¬ 
ding to the two methods, illustrated in our lesson to-day all sorts of 
pies, puddings, tarts, patties, vol-au-vents, etc., etc., can be made; 
and the paste or crust can be used in deep or shallow pans or dishes 
and readily adapted to the various purposes for which it is needed, 




PIE CRUSTS. 


35 


by being rolled thick or thin. And the material with which the 
paste or crust is to be filled can be prepared according to receipts 
given in different cook books; or these receipts can be modified 
and changed to suit the taste and fancy. The famous English meat, 
and fruit pies, are made in deep dishes with side and top crusts 
only, and the almost ecpially famous New England pandowdy, which 
is composed of sliced apples and New Orleans molasses, is made in 
a similar manner. Pie making like bread making, is governed by 
certain general principles, and when these are thoroughly under¬ 
stood there is no difficulty whatever in making every imaginary 
description and variety of pie. And as the demand for this seem¬ 
ingly indispensable article of diet is rapidly on the increase, no in¬ 
telligent housekeeper can afford to be ignorant in regard to the 
methods of making it. 

The pastry, after remaining in the oven twenty five minutes, was 
taken out, beautifully baked. The two pies, from which the top 
crusts were gently removed and the linen rags taken out, prepara- 
tary to being filled with prepared fruit, were perfect specimens of 
fiaky pie crust. And the puff paste patty cases, having risen in the 
oven to the utmost limit—seven times their original thickness— 
seemed to vie in delicacy and fragrance with the blossoms of the 
adjacent orange groves. So after satisfactorily examining the results 
of the lesson, it was decided by the class, without a dissenting 
voice, that puff paste patty and linen pie, should both have places 
on the picnic bill of fare. 




38 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


CHAPTEK IX. 

A RETURN TO DOUGH. 


It was Tuesday. The picnic was to take place in a loveiy orange 
grove the following Saturday. And as the previous week had been 
devoted mainly to lessons on salads, jellied meats, boned fowls and 
other things specially suitable for picnics and parties, all of which 
had been well patronized, there was a larger attendance than usual 
to-day. Several gentlemen, among them Col. Frank Mayo, whom 
Miss Knight met for the first time that morning, were also loitering 
about the school room. But as they were only escorts of some of 
the ladies, they accepted Tom Knight’s invitation to smoke a good 
cigar and visit the grove where the picnic was to be held, while 
the ladies went through the lesson. 

“ To return to our dough,” said Miss Lucy as she called the viva¬ 
cious class to order, “ instead of to ‘ our muttons ’ as the French 
would put it, the first thing on the programme is 

ORANGE BLOSSOM MUFFINS. 

From this batch of bread dough, made with Orange Blossom 
flour and compressed yeast in the manner taught you, I pull off 
the desired number of pieces and shape them into circular cakes 
half an inch thick and about four inches in diameter. This dough 
which has stood three hours is thoroughly light, and I will let the 
cakes stand on a baking sheet till they again rise, and will then bake 
them on a griddle. They should bake slowly and when done will 
have a light brown ring in the centre, but will look white. These 
muffins resemble English muffins, and are sold as such in some cities, 
but the real English muffin which is somewhat different, is seldom 
seen in this country. The Orange Blossom muffin is nice for pic¬ 
nics and parties where you have a fire, as they can be toasted readily 
and buttered, and are then very delicious.” 

“01 dote on English muffins,” said a young lady who had re¬ 
cently returned from Europe, “ we used to have such lovely ones 
at some hotels in England Tell us please how they are made.” 




MUFFINS.—LOAF CAKE. 


37 


“So few people in this country have ever seen or know anything 
about them,” replied Miss Lucy, “that they are very seldom made. 
This, however, is a good receipt for 

ENGLISH MUFFINS. 

Dissolve three ounces of compressed yeast in a quart of warm 
water, and stir in sufficient Orange Blossom flour to make a stiff 
batter. Set in a warm place three or four hours, or till light, then 
stir down and divide into pieces the size desired. Mold with the 
hands, and put in wooden trays containing a bed of flour for each 
muffin. Let stand about two hours and bake on an iron griddle, 
turning them over after they have risen. Bake fifteen minutes. 
Tear them open when cold and toast, and you will probably find 
them as perfect as any of the muffins you ate in England. 

t 

LOAF CAKE 

is easily made, is inexpensive, and is excellent for picnic purposes. 
Take three cups of dough—ordinary bread dough that is per¬ 
fectly light and ready for the last molding, as this is—add to 
it two cups of granulated sugar, one cup of butter, one cup 
of chopped raisins, tw r o eggs well beaten, one teaspoonful of cinna¬ 
mon or mixed spices, and half a teaspoonful of soda. Work these 
ingredients in an earthen bowl with the hand for half an hour, or 
until well mixed and quite soft. Then put the mixture in a butter 
baking dish, lined with paraffine paper, and let stand two hours, or 
until light. Bake in a very moderate oven, from an hour and a 
half to two hours. 

This cake is excellent when fresh, but I think improves with age, 
and is even better after it has been kept several weeks, than when 
only a day old. It is also very nice steamed, either fresh or stale, 
and served hot 5 as a pudding with a wine or fruit sauce. 

MARYLAND BISCUIT 

is a species of cracker or biscuit frequently called beaten biscuit. 
It is a great favorite with southern housekeepers, but is seldom 
seen on northern or western tables. Maryland, or beaten biscuit, 
are always suitable at tea, with any kind of relish, either hot or 
cold, and are never out of place at lunch parties or picnics. They 
only require a proper introduction to become highly popular. They 
are made in this manner: To a quart of Orange Blossom flour, 
add a tablespoonful of lard and a teaspoonful of salt. Bub the lard 




38 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


well through the flour, moisten gradually with half a pint of cold 
water and work the dough a sufficient length of time to make it 
hold together, then beat with an axe or mallet or other heavy im¬ 
plement until it is pliable and blisters. When it reaches this con¬ 
dition stop beating, roll into balls about the size of a walnut with 
the hands, flatten, prick several times with a fork, and bake twenty 
minutes in a quick oven.” 

Several of the pupils who had never seen Maryland biscuit took 
a hand at the pounding and thought it didn’t pay to make them; 
but after seeing the chubby little fellows come from the oven so 
delicately brown on top and bottom, and giving a hint of their hid¬ 
den whiteness through the cracks at the edges, they concluded they 
had been amply rewarded for the labor, and would repeat the per¬ 
formance at an early day. 

“ Now,” said Miss Lucy, “we will have three kinds of cake that 
by their harmonious contrast in color and flavor recommend them¬ 
selves to popular taste. 

This is the receipe we will folllow in making 

SPONGE CAKE. 

Weigh ten eggs, take their weight of granulated sugar and half 
their weight of Orange Blossom flour. Beat separately, until per¬ 
fectly light, the whites of all the eggs and the yolks of eight of 
them, then mix and beat together, and gradually add the sugar, the 
juice and grated rind of a lemon, and lastly stir in carefully the 
flour. Bake in square tin pans. 

The cake that has been most popular the last few years, and that 
some ladies have even gone hundreds of miles to learn how to make, 
will next engage our attention. It is fancifully designated 

ANGEL’S FOOD. 

The ingredients are: The whites of ten eggs, one and one-half 
tumblers of finely granulated sugar, one tumbler Orange Blossom 
flour, one teaspoonful cream of tartar. Add a pinch of salt to the 
eggs and beat them to a stiff froth. Sift the sugar three or four 
times and add gradually to the eggs, beating thoroughly. Mix the 
cream of tartar with the flour, sift five or six times, and then sift 
gradually into the mixture of sugar and eggs. Stir together lightly 
and carefully, but -without beating pour into a smoth ungreased 
pan and bake 40 minutes in a moderate oven. When cool the cake 



SPONGE CAKE—ANGELS’ FOOD. 


39 


can be removed from the pan with a fork. As the pan should al¬ 
ways be turned bottom side up and the air allowed to pass under 
the cake while cooling, it is safer to leave the pan ungreased so 
that the cake may not drop out and be injured.” 

The note books and pencils that had been used so vigorously du¬ 
ring the lesson were laid aside. Specimens of such articles as had 
been baked, were secured by the pupils, and as the ladies’ escorts 
had finished their inspection of the grove and were seen approach¬ 
ing, cooking school was adjourned until after the picnic. 

Col. Frank Mayo went to bed at a late hour that night. But 
sleep was a stranger to his eyelids. A new experience had come 
to him. ISot until that day had Lucy Knight entered his thoughts. 
He had never heard her name spoken except by Sophie Southgate. 
He had never seen her face till that morning. He had conversed 
with her scarcely five minutes, but she had entered largely into his 
life. A feeling to which he had been heretofore a stranger—a 
feeling of dissatisfaction and unrest had suddenly taken possession 
of him. Visions of a future into which Lucy Knight’s shadow 
strangely projected itself, rose up before him, and filled his mind 
with gloomy forebodings. And when he finally sunk into a feverish 
slumber a panorama appeared to unroll before him in which the 
prominent actors were Lucy Knight and Sophie Southgate, but 
in which he distinctly recognized himself as a conspicuous figure 
in the foreground. What did it all mean? 









40 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


CHAPTER X. 

BREAKFAST BITES. 


“ Lucy,” said Mrs. Knight, as slie and her niece sat at the tea 
table, “ your uncle Tom has gone to Le Grand on business that wil 
detain him over night. But he will be back in time for a nine 
o’clock breakfast to-morrow morning, and I propose that we give 
him a surprise. Tom’s weakness is waffles and honey, and we have 
had neither since you have been with us. To-day our ‘ itinerating 
grocery man,’ as your uncle calls the old lady who occasionally brings 
us fresh eggs and vegetables, brought me some lovely white clover 
honey, and if you will contribute some Orange Blossom waffles, 
Nancy will prepare us a breakfast adapted to the season and clime, 
and worthy the occasion.” 

“ I shall be delighted to do it,” was Lucy’s reply. “ And, aunt 
Carrie, with your permission I will add to the bill of fare 
pineapple fritters or nun’s puffs, or pop overs or some toothsome 
trifle that will please uncle and give Nancy no additional 
trouble.” 

“ Nancy will be so tickled at the idea of your giving her a lesson, 
that she will only be too happy to do anything you wish,” was Mrs. 
Knight’s reply, *'• and if she and you will assume the responsibility, 
you may arrange things for breakfast just as you wish, provided 
you don't omit the waffles and honey.” 

Miss Lucy was soon in the kitchen, and as she was a great favor¬ 
ite there as in the school room, it required but a few minutes for 
her to plan the breakfast, and instruct Nancy just how to make the 
waffles and .fritters. And these were her recipes— 

ORANGE BLOSSOM WAFFLES. 

Heat a quart of- milk to boxiing point. Set aside till lukewarm. 
Stir in an ounce of butter and one and one-half pounds of Orange 
Blossom flour. Add a quarter of an ounce of compressed yeast 
dissolved in a spoonful of water, or half a gill of home made yeast. 
Beat thoroughly, and let rise over night. Beat again in the morn¬ 
ing, and bake in waffle irons. 






FRITTERS. 


41 


PINEAPPLE FRITTERS. 

One cup Orange Blossom flour, one cup milk, one egg. Beat to¬ 
gether the flour, half the milk, and the yolk of the egg. Then add 
gradually, beating all the while, the balance of the milk; and lastly, 
the white of the egg beaten stiff, Dip up the batter by spoonfuls. 
Insert a bit of pineapple in each spoonful. Drop into smoking hot 
lard, and fry till a delicate brown. 

The breakfast was perfect. Nancy had learned her lesson well. 
The waffles and fritters were faultless, and everything gave entire 
satisfaction. The morning ride had given uncle Tom a keen appe¬ 
tite, and he helped himself bountifully to waffles and honey, and 
left Lucy and her aunt to discuss, without interruption, the methods 
of preparing various articles of food. 

“ These fritters,” said Mrs. Knight,” were mixed with milk. 
Do you always use milk, and do you consider it better than 
water?” 

“ On that point ” replied Lucy, “I am undecided. Sometimes I 
use milk, and sometimes water. Sometimes milk appears to answer 
better than water; and sometimes water seems to give the most 
satisfactory results. Either answers admirably; but as milk was 
abundant in the kitchen this morning, I recommended it to Nancy, 
with instructions to substitute water at any time she chose. I also 
gave her some general directions that will enable her to make quite 
a variety of fritters. For I have experimented a great deal with 
fritters, and find no difficulty in making them of nearly every kind 
of fruit and vegetable I am acquainted with. This rule holds good 
in every department of culinary science: If you obtain a thorough 
knowledge of the principles that govern any branch of cookery, you 
can with a little thought prepare an article belonging to that spe¬ 
cial branch. When you know how to make one kind of bread, 
or one kind of pie, it is easy to make all the varieties of bread 
and pie. So it is with fritters. And I presume Nancy, from 
the little theoretical and practical instruction I gave her about 
fritters, can serve up a dozen varieties, equally as nice as these 
are. 

But fritters, like soups and salads, have to be classified, if one 
wishes to become thoroughly acquainted with them, as the different 
classes are prepared according to somewhat different methods. 
Take as an illustration of another class this recipe for 





42 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


QUEEN’S FRITTERS. 

Boil together for five minutes, in a saucepan, a pint of water, 
four ounces of butter, a tablespoonful of sugar, and the rind 
of a lemon. .Remove the lemon, stir in half a pound of Orange 
Blossom flour, and continue the stirring until the dough ceases 
to stick to the spoon or the saucepan. Drop by spoonfuls into 
smoking hot fat, and fry slowly until brown and crisp. These 
fritters should expand in the frying, to about four times their 
original size.” 

“ It seems to me Lucy,” said her uncle, as he complacently wiped 
the honey from his moustache, that I have done ample justice to 
the breakfast, while you have monopolized the talking. Now let 
me tell you a secret—an open one though—which 1 betray no con¬ 
fidence in divulging. Col. Mayo met you yesterday morning, and 
it is already the current report in his set, that he is a victim of 
Cupid’s, has fallen despeiately in love with you at first sight. ’ 

<£ O nonsense, uncle,” interrupted Lucy, “ we scarcely spoke with 
each other, and I incline to think you are drawing on your imagi¬ 
nation for your facts. Besides, our interview was too recent to 
admit of such a report getting into circulation.” 

“ So it would seem, Lucy; but jesting aside,” he continued, “ and 
in all earnestness, I heard it from three different sources. How 
the report got started is a mystery; but such confounded things do 
get afloat mysteriously, and then they always travel with lightning 
like rapidity.” 

“ I see no reason why Col. Mayo should not have the privilege 
of falling in love at first sight,” interrupted Mrs. Knight, whose 
womanly vision began already to catch glimpses of a prospective 
wedding. “ He is said to be a gentlemen of refinement and cul¬ 
ture; and I can readily imagine how such a man should become an 
ardent admirer of our niece.” 

“ You are very complimentary, aunt Carrie,” interrupted Lucy, 
“ But the general impression is that Col. Mayo and Sophie South- 
gate are already engaged,” 

“ Lucy” said her Uncle, “ the old song tells us, ‘ men are deceit¬ 
ful ever’; and you know engagements are easily broken. Your 
aunt Carrie will no doubt have the pleasure of becoming acquainted 
with the Colonel this evening, and next week, I shall probably be 
informed that I may secure the services of another teacher of 




RUMORS. 


43 


cookery, or make arrangements for turning the school room into a 
skating rink.” 

“ Uncle,” said Lucy as they rose from the table, “you need have 
no fears of my relinquishing the cooking school, as you imagine; 
and I have no idea that aunt Carrie will have the pleasure of meet¬ 
ing the Colonel before the day of the picnic.” 



44 


ORANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


CHAPTER XL 


REFLECTION. 


Miss Kniglit had been too busy since the opening of the cooking 
school to find leisure for anything not strictly in the line of her 
work. That, however was such a source of gratification and pride 
to her, that she had no desire for leisure, and felt no need of recrea¬ 
tion. But now that the approaching picnic had given her an en¬ 
forced vacation, she determined to enjoy it to the full, by spending 
the greater portion of it among the birds and flowers, drinking in 
their music and fragrance and sharing with them the golden sun¬ 
shine. The day was lovely. There had been a slight shower of 
rain during the night, which had settled the dust and freshened the 
atmosplier^. And immediately after lunch Lucy selected from the 
library a volume of her favorite author, and started for a stroll, 
intending to spend the greater portion of the afternoon in the 
shadiest and quietest spot she might chance to find. 

The conversation of her uncle at the breakfast table she consid¬ 
ered mere badinage. The idea of Col. Mayo becoming seriously 
impressed with her during the five minutes interview was too pre¬ 
posterous to be entertained. She had heard of him as a long-time 
friend and admirer of Sophie Southgate. AYlie she was told of his 
coming South to remain several weeks or months as circumstances 
might determine, she concluded he was a prospective, if not an ac¬ 
cepted lover. And to have her name bandied about in connection 
with his, in a neighborhood where they were both comparative 
strangers, was exceedingly annoying. During their short acquaint¬ 
ance, a strong attachment had grown up between her and Sophie, 
and she was anxious not to have their kindly relations disturbed— 
as she knew they inevitably would be—if Sophie’s temperament 
was that of the ordinary woman, and such a report reached her. 
But what could she do to prevent it obtaining circulation and cre¬ 
dence? How could she silence the report? How could she disa¬ 
buse the minds of her new-made friends on the subject. ? Or was 
the matter of sufficient importance to entitle it to consideration and 
notice? Col. Mayo was no more to her than hundreds of young 
men she had met, chatted with and forgotten. She might perhaps 





A LAST RECIPE. 


45 


be thrown in liis society at the picnic, pass a pleasant hour with, 
and never again see him. Then why not dismiss the subject alto¬ 
gether? As she sauntered leisurely along, turning over in her 
mind these and a variety of similar cpiestions, uncertain what 
answer to give them, or what exact course to pursue in relation to 
the unpleasant notoriety that seemed imminent, she saw Sophie 
coming across the grove towards her. The problem was now solved. 
The opportunity she needed to explain the miserable dilemma in 
which she had been placed, was now presented. She had not even 
been obliged to wait for and seek the favorable moment. In the 
lines of one of the poems in the volume she held in her hand, she 
would, “ The grand occasion’s forelock seize,” and in a free and 
friendly talk with Sophie would fully define her position on friend¬ 
ship, love, marriage, and the relations that should exist between the 
sexes, so there could be no room in the future, for any complica¬ 
tions or misunderstandings, 

“I am sure you will pardon me Miss Knight for breaking in upon 
your solitude,” began Sophie after the two ladies had met and 
saluted each other cordially, “ when I inform you that a very dear 
friend in New England is so anxious to obtain your receipt for 
delicate cake, that she writes me I must without fail send it to her 
to-morrow. And for the purpose of gratifying her I concluded to 
make myself a nuisance and run the risk of annoying you, by com¬ 
ing to get it this afternoon.” * 

“ No visit could have been more opportune,” replied Miss Knight, 
“ I have a thousand and one things to say to you that I feel in justice 
to both of us ought to be said, and for the last half hour I have been 
wondering when and where I would find the proper time and place 
for saying them. And almost before the wish to see you had as¬ 
sumed shape, like some good spirit you suddenly appear in answer 
to it. But as we have the afternoon before us, without fear of in¬ 
terruption, let us sit down on the grassy bank, and after you have 
written out the recipe we can talk to our hearts’ content.” 

“ I am so glad I was prompted to come,” was Sophie’s quiet re¬ 
ply, as she drew from her pocket a note book and pencil, and took 
dowm at Miss Knight’s dictation, this recipe for 

DELICATE CAKE. 

Ingredients: Three cups of Orange Blossom flour, tw r o cups of 
granulated sugar, one cup of cold w ater, three-fourths of a cup of 


\ 


v 




46 


CHANGE BLOSSOM COOK BOOK. 


butter, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, tlie whites of seven 
eggs, and flavoring to taste. 

Cream the butter, add the sugar and beat till light and creamy. 
Sift the flour and baking powder together, and stir alternately with 
the water into the sugar and butter mixture. When they are all 
in beat vigorously, then add, stirring gently till thoroughly mixed, 
the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Bake in a moderate 
oven. 

The last word of the recipe had scarcely been written, when a 
rustle among the branches a short distance from where the two 
women were seated, attracted their attention, and looking in the 
direction from whence it came, they simultaneously exclaimed 
“ Col. Mayo!” 

“I presume I am an unwelcome visitor,” he remarked smilingly 
as he approached, “ and beg pardon in advance for intruding upon 
your privacy in such an uncermonious manner. The fact is I 
passed rather an uncomfortable night, owing no doubt to an excess 
of bad bread, and for the purpose of getting rid of my attack of in¬ 
digestion started on an aimless exursion this afternoon, little think¬ 
ing I should have the pleasure of meeting such interesting com¬ 
panions.” 

“ Your visit is certainly unexpected, Colonel,” said Sophie, “ but 
I am sure I speak Miss Knight’s sentiments, as well as my own, 
when I say it is not an unwelcome one. 

1 ‘ Colonel Mayo is certainly welcome’,” said Miss Knight, “ and 
if either of us can do anything to compensate for the loss of his 
night’s rest, he may command our services.” 

“ Thanks for the aid you so kindly offer,” responded the Colonel, 
bowing politely. “And as I need no more potent panacea than an 
hour’s chat, I shall accept your services in that direction, and claim 
the privilege of a seat on the greensward with you for that length 
of time.” And he stretched himself carelessly on the grassy bank 
-where they were seated. 

Col. Mayo was entertaining at all times, but he now exerted him¬ 
self to be more so than usual. And he succeeded so admirably that 
the time flew away very rapidly. Two hours passed, and as he ex¬ 
pressed no intention of retiring, it became evident to Miss Knight 
that her proposed talk would have to be deferred, and she proposed 
that Sophie and the Colonel should accompany her home, and take 
tea with her. Both however pleaded prior engagements, and after 





THE “OLD, OLD STOKT.” 


47 


escorting her to her uncle’s gate, bade her good bye and passed on. 
A few minutes afterward she was seated in an easy chair in the 
library, thinking. Of what was Lucy Knight thinking? 

The Colonel and Sophie discussed a variety of subjects as they 
walked down the shady road together. The afternoon had been to 
her a season of happiness. She had enjoyed it as she had enjoyed 
no other afternoon since she had been in the South. But when she 
and the Colonel parted, she fancied—was it only fancy?—that he 
seemed more reserved and indifferent than usual in his leave tak¬ 
ing. And as she stood at the window of her cosy little chamber 
and watched him saunter slowly along till out of sight, she gave 
herself up to her own thoughts. Of what was Sophie Southgate 
thinking? 

The afternoon to Col, Mayo was full of lights and shadows. 
During the brief moments he lay on that grassy bank and talked 
with Lucy Knight and Sophie Southgate, and looked into the faces 
of those two earnest, warm hearted and truthful women he caught 
glimses of a future in which for him there seemed much brightness 
and darkness combined—in which for him joy and sorrow seemed 
strangely confused, commingled, and blended. As he walked 
homeward he felt more dissatisfied with himself than he had felt 
in all the years gone by. And when he threw himself on a lounge 
in his room after supper, his thoughts reached far back into the 
past, and far onward into the future. Of what was Col. Mayo 
thinking? 




Note on Illustrations. 


-- 

The illustrations opposite, are designed to show the appearance of some of 
the different articles for whose preparation recipes are given in the Orange 
Blossom Cook Book. The various recipes will readily be found by referring 
to the index opposite the title page. The uses and advantages ol the wash 
brush will be found described on page 16. 

ADVERTISEMENT. 


The manufacturers of Orange Blossom Flour, desire to state that nobody 
who wants a barrel of Orange Blossom, and is able to pay for it, shall go with¬ 
out it. Therefore, should you have any difficulty about getting it from your 
dealer, please write to us and we will either put you in the way of getting it 
through your local dealers or we will ship it to you direct from the mill. 

GUARANTEE. 

Each package of Orange Blossom made in the St. Paul Roller Mill goes ou 
with the following strong guarantee: 

This package of Orange Blossom flour is made from the finest Minnesota 
and Dakota hard wheat by the St. Paul Roller Mill Company. 

We guarantee the Orange Blossom flour to be the very choicest made as 
well as the cheapest, taking all its properties into account. As we warran 
every pound of Orange Blossom, your grocer will exchange the flour or refund 
the money if the flour should not suit. 

As Orange Blossom flour contains a much larger proportion of gluten and 
phosphate than ordinary flour, it will absorb more water than winter wheat 
flours, and the dough should be mixed thinner accordingly. From 40 to 60 
lbs. more bread to the barrel are obtainable from Orange Blossom than from 
ordinary flour. 






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ENG. MUFFINS 


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